Pikmin: The Movie
Pikmin: The Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy based on the popular long-running NBC animated television series Pikmin. The film was directed by series creator Chris Meledandri, and stars the regular television cast of Chris Renaud, Grey DeLisle, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Seth Green, Phil Proctor, and Gregg Berger, with guest roles by Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, and Green Day. The film follows Captain Olimar, whose irresponsibility gets the best of him when he pollutes the lake in Pikminville after the town has cleaned it up, causing the Environmental Protection Agency to imprison the town under a giant dome. After he and his friends narrowly manage to escape, they ultimately abandon Olimar for his selfishness, to which he works to redeem his folly by stopping Russ Cargill, the head of the EPA, from destroying not just Pikminville, but the entire world. Although previous attempts to create a Pikmin ''film had been made, they all failed due to the lack of a script of appropriate length and production crew members. Eventually in 2002, producers Pierre Coffin, Chris Meledandri and Chris Renaud began development of the film and a writing team consisting of Coffin, Meledandri, Chris Wedge, Ian Maxtone-Graham, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti was assembled. They conceived numerous plot ideas, with Meledandri's being the one developed into a film. The script was rewritten over a hundred times, to which it continued after the animation begun in 2006. Consequently, hours of finished material was cut from the final release, including cameo roles from Erin Brockovich, Minnie Driver, Isla Fisher, Kelsey Grammer and Edward Norton, who were all guest stars on the show; Tom Hanks and the members of Green Day appeared in the final cut as their animated selves while Albert Brooks, a frequent guest performer on the series, provided the voice of the villain Cargill. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies to promote the film's release, including McDonald's and 7-Eleven, the latter of which transformed selected stores into Ronald's Convenience Store. The film premiered at the Angelika Film Center in New York City on December 1, 2007 and was released theatrically six days later by Universal Pictures across the United States. ''Pikmin: The Movie was both a critical and commercial success, grossing over $526 million worldwide and becoming the ninth highest-grossing film of 2007, the third highest-grossing traditionally animated film (behind the original version of The Lion King ''and ''The Simpsons Movie) and the second highest-ever grossing film based on an animated television series. A sequel, Pikmin: Hero Out of the City, is set to be released on December 6, 2019. Plot While performing on Lake Pikminville, the band Green Day perishes when the lake's pollution dissolves their barge, following an audience revolt after frontman Billie Joe Armstrong proposes an environmental discussion. At their memorial, Purple Pikmin foresees the destruction of the town, but only Margo takes this seriously. Later that day, Olimar dares Alex to skateboard without a shirt to Burger King where he is arrested "in the name of American squeamishness". Alex considers their neighbor Katie a better friend after Olimar refuses to take responsibility for the incident, while Red Pikmin and his new friend named Colin convince the entire town to clean their lake. Meanwhile, Olimar rescues a pig from Burger King and names him "Spider Hog". He stores the pig's feces (and some of his own) in a large silo, until Margo tells him to safely dispose of the waste. Olimar initially intends to take his silo to the waste management plant, but after Louie calls to tell him that ??? Donuts has been shut down due to health violations and is giving away free donuts, Olimar dumps the silo straight into the lake, severely polluting it. Moments later, a squirrel jumps into the lake and is mutated by the pollution. Katie and Alex, who bond after Olimar humiliates Alex, discover the creature before the villains captures it. Dark Pikmin presents five "unthinkable" options to U.S. President Arnold Schwarzenegger to keep the town's pollution contained. The slow-witted president picks an option without reading it, and Pikminville is encased in a gigantic glass dome. Later that night, the police discover Olimar's silo in the lake and accuse Olimar of being responsible for the dome. The townspeople, form an angry mob and advance on the Pikmin Club's home but they escape through a sinkhole, which then destroys their house and car. With the villains on their trail, the Pikmin Club flee to a motel. Olimar wins a truck at a carnival by riding a motorcycle inside a spherical steel cage, with Blue Pikmin's help, and drives the group to Alaska. After three months of many escape attempts, Pikminville's residents finally make a small crack in the dome. Pointing out the damage, Dark Pikmin manipulates Schwarzenegger into ordering the town's destruction. In Alaska, the Pikmin Club see an advert starring Tom Hanks for a new Grand Canyon on the site of Pikminville. Realizing that the town is in danger, Margo, Alex, and the pikmin want to go back to save it, but Olimar refuses to help its townspeople who tried to kill him and he would rather kill them in return. After failing to persuade him to return, they leave him behind. Later, Olimar receives a video recording message left by Margo that she taped over their wedding video. Having a change of heart, he goes searching for his group, but is stranded on a slab of ice and floats away. Meanwhile, Margo, Alex, and the pikmin are captured by the villains after a conversation of theirs is overheard by the NSA. Elsewhere after a mysterious Inuit shaman woman saves Olimar from a polar bear, he has an epiphany and decides to return to Pikminville intending to save the town from destruction. As Olimar finally arrives, a helicopter lowers a "small but powerful bomb" down a rope through a hole in the dome. While Olimar climbs to the top of the dome from the outside using superglue on his hands, the townspeople inside attempt to climb the rope to escape through the still-opened hole. However, Olimar slides down the rope and accidentally knocks them off along with the bomb, causing him to get berated by the townspeople again. After reuniting and reconciling with Alex, Olimar rides a motorcycle up the dome interior, similar to the earlier carnival attraction. Alex, riding with him, manages to hurl the bomb through the hole which detonates seconds later, shattering the dome into millions of shards and saving the town. Olimar and Alex are confronted by Dark Pikmin, who intends to kill Olimar with a shotgun for foiling his plan, but Yellow Pikmin knocks him out with a large boulder. The townspeople finally praise Olimar as a hero and forgive him. He rides into the sunset with Margo and the Pikmin, whereupon the townspeople restore Pikminville to normal. As a symbol of their gratitude, the townspeople help the Pikmin Club rebuild their house that was destroyed by the sinkhole. There was a happy ending for everyone including Olimar, Margo, Alex, the Pikmin, and even Dark Pikmin, and the heroic group wins medals of honor. And so, the Pikmin Club and Pikminville lived happily ever after. The scrolling credits began with 2 songs such as the Pikmin theme song and Mission Impossible theme song playing during the credits. In the post-credits scene, the Pikmin Club stating their opinions about this movie, and Alex says what sequel will come out. Cast Main article: List of Pikmin characters * Chris Renaud as Captain Olimar / Roger Stevens / Sea Captain / President Arnold Schwarzenegger / Phil Johnston / Additional voices * Grey DeLisle as Margo Gru / Carlee Kinney / Medicine Woman / Additional voices * Nancy Cartwright as Alex Delmer / Daniel Ableman / Jimmy Madison / Nathan and Zachary Stewartson / Mike * Dan Castellaneta as Red Pikmin / Purple Pikmin / Rock Pikmin / Sideshow Jake / EPA Official / Darky / Charlie / Stage Manager / Mr. Williams / Jeff Hanneman / Nate Phillips / Additional voices * Seth Green as Blue Pikmin * Phil Proctor as Yellow Pikmin / Additional voices * Gregg Berger as Dark Pikmin * Albert Brooks as Russ Cargill * Michael Beattie as Tattoo * Ed Nelson as Mr. Wayne * Cathy Caviandi as Edith Gru * Tara Strong as Agnes Gru / Additional voices * Hank Azaria as Sammy Albertson / Ronald Hopkins / Winged Pikmin * Jim Cummings as Derrick / Additional voices * Brian T. Delaney as Dragon / Additional voices * Arnold Ward as Maxwell Markson * Rob Paulsen as Louie / Additional voices * Tom Kenny as Crazy Clown / Piggy / Additional voices * Chris Meledandri as Principal Michael / Additional voices * Steve Freeman as Christian Hartman * Harry Shearer as Reverend Peterson / Dr. Lightman * Billy West as Hugh Madison / Bulbmin / Wasp Man / Gas Station Clerk / Westley / Additional voices * Tony Rickman as Mushroom Pikmin * Tress MacNeille as Sally Michaelson / Additional voices * Pierre Coffin as Francis / Dome Depot Announcer / EPA Officer / Additional voices * Jennifer Saunders as Katie Ishmael * Jess Harnell as Alph / Male EPA Worker / Additional voices * Candi Milo as Mrs. Peterson * Jennifer Hale as Rachel Lynn / Additional voices * Amanda Wilcox as Miss Artisan * Russi Taylor as Ulises * Green Day as Themselves * Tim Curry as Mr. Oaks * Tom Hanks as Himself * Frank Welker as Carrot Pikmin / Additional voices Production Development Pikmin: The Movie was a long-planned production, since Universal Studios had been approaching series creator Chris Meledandri to do a film on the show but he refused for more than a year. Developmental stages began for the film midway through the series' third season production in November 1991. The production staff had considered a film adaptation of Pikmin since early in the series. Meledandri felt a feature length film would allow them to increase the show's scale and animate sequences too complex for a TV series. There were attempts to adapt the fourth season episode "I'm Lava'n It" into a film, but difficulties were encountered in expanding the episode to feature-length. Pikmin: The Movie was announced in January 2002 headed by Chris Meledandri. In April 2003, Meledandri announced he was working on the script, and the film was planned to be released in Summer 2007 instead of its date of December 7, 2007 to avoid competition with Alvin and the Chipmunks. The producers were initially worried that creating a film would have a negative effect on the series, as they did not have enough crew to focus their attention on both projects. As the series progressed, additional writers and animators were hired so that both the show and the film could be produced at the same time. Work continued on the screenplay from 2004 onwards, taking place in the small bungalow where Meledandri first pitched Pikmin in 1987. Meledandri described his desire to also make the film dramatically stronger than a TV episode, saying that he wanted to "give you something that you haven't seen before". Animation While animation production for the film began in January 2006, the film was animated abroad at Rough Draft Studios in South Korea and Los Angeles. Meledandri rejected making either a live-action or a CGI film, calling the film's animation "deliberately imperfect" and "a tribute to the art of hand-drawn animation". The hand-drawn animation was made by Rough Draft Studios in both Los Angeles, California and Seoul, South Korea, and was outsourced to Sunwoo Entertainment and Hanho Heung-Up Co. Ltd both in South Korea, Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, and TMS Entertainment in Japan. Casting The main voice actors from Pikmin: Chris Renaud, Grey DeLisle, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Seth Green, and Gregg Berger, reprised their roles from the show. The cast did the first of three table readings in August 2005, and began recording every week from January 2006 until the end of production. Music Chris Meledandri announced in November 2004 that series composer Heitor Perira will be composing the film's score. Music production began in 2005 and ended in 2006. Release On April 1, 2006, 20th Century Fox announced that the film would be released worldwide on December 7, 2007. Marketing A teaser poster for the film was released on February 27, 2007. The film's official teaser trailer first debuted on March 7, 2007, and was attached to the theatrical release of TMNT. A second teaser trailer debuted on July 11, 2007, and it is attached to the theatrical releases for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Simpsons Movie. The official trailer has debuted on September 21, 2007, during the season nineteen premiere of Pikmin, and was attached to theatrical releases of The Heroes, Bee Movie, and Enchanted. The following month, TV spots were also aired. The film was backed by a large marketing campaign, with toys, books, games, clothes, and many other items becoming available throughout 2007. A video game based on the film was made for the Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS on November 27, 2007 in North America, on December 13, 2007 in Europe, and on January 27, 2008 in Japan. McFarlane Toys released a line of action figures based on the film. Samsung released the Pikmin: The Movie phone, and Microsoft produced a limited edition Pikmin: The Movie Xbox 360. Windows Live Messenger presented their users with the opportunity to download a free animated and static content for use within their conversations. McDonald's produced a line of six toys that were given away with Happy Meals. JetBlue Airways held a series of online sweepstakes to win a trip to the film's Los Angeles, California premiere. They also included a channel dedicated to Pikmin ''on their planes' in-flight entertainment system. Home media ''Pikmin: The Movie was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 22, 2008, and on Blu-ray 3D on May 3, 2011. Both releases include a short film titled Olimar Has Done It. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released on November 15, 2016. Reception Critical response Pikmin: The Movie received positive reviews by a number of critics and fans of the show upon release. Based on reviews collected from 325 critics by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 88% gave Pikmin: The Movie a positive review, with the site's consensus stating: "Pikmin: The Movie is getting more edgier, and it's a fantastic movie with way better animation and storyline." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average rating of 80 out of 100 based on 53 professional reviews published in newspapers, magazines and in highly regarded Internet sites, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars saying it's "wonderous, entertaining, hilarious, and it's full with enjoyment," while Richard Corliss of Time Magazine gave a positive review and called it "laughably fun." Max Nicholson of IGN commented, "Pikmin: The Movie lives up to the groundbreaking hit, except the plot is very familiar." James Rocchi of MSN Movies gave the film four out of five stars, calling it "a film that is cool filled with some action and more." Box office Category:Films